Win 9422 designer?

[Mike Armstrong]

I just got a nice Win 9422M rimfire lever rifle and have had problems finding much about its design history. Anybody know who designed it?

Side ejection reminds me more of a Marlin than a Winchester, but the locking system is unlike any Marlin I've ever examined. Is it like some other Winchester's?

[Mike Armstrong]

Still haven't found out who designed this model, but a neat article on the Leverguns website by Tom Boyle comparing the 9422 and Marlin 39/1897 lever .22s mentions that the 9422 shares some design traits with the earlier Model 61 pump .22.

I have a 61M and looking at the bolts and receivers of both I can sure see the family resemblance. 9422 is a kind of a "lever-operated pump," just as the 88 is a "lever operated Model 100" semiauto! And of course the Ruger 96/22 etc. family seem to be lever operated versions of THEIR semi-autos.

[Rusty]

I was listening to a Handgun Radio podcast the other night with a historian as the guest. It seems that in the early years there were several firearms designers that went back and forth between the different companies. The same designer ( can't remember the name) that worked for Colt and did most of the work on the 1873 SAA was later hired by Winchester to help "clean up" some of the work done by John Mosses Browning.

[pdentrem]

Was it Lewis Hepburn? He moved around a fair bit. Was at Marlin, Remington and Winchester mostly from I have read.
Pierre

[Blaine]

I don't know where they came from, but, I've had four different 39 variants, newest one being a early 70, or late 69, and my two 9422s (one a 9422M) are smoother, faster, and have never, ever jammed. Seems like you really have to be careful with 39s to get them to cycle perfectly. Now, on the other hand, I wish my 9422s had a trigger as good as a 39, and were as accurate.

[flightsimmer]

I don't know where they came from, but, I've had four different 39 variants, newest one being a early 70, or late 69, and my two 9422s (one a 9422M) are smoother, faster, and have never, ever jammed. Seems like you really have to be careful with 39s to get them to cycle perfectly. Now, on the other hand, I wish my 9422s had a trigger as good as a 39, and were as accurate.

As I recall from the 9422 in 22lr that I had years ago they were what I believe is called a positive feed action, that is the cartridge leaves the tube and is captured by the bolt and extractor, it is not laying loose on the elevator.
You can even turn it sideways or upsidedown and it will still feed perfectly.
It was a very good gun and I should have never sold it.
I even had a matching 94, 30-30. Both were excellent shooters.

[Ji in Hawaii]

Using my powers of Google-Fu I came up with these two articles. Could not locate a name/names for designer/designers who added the lever to the model 61 pump to create the 9422.

The model 61 pump was designed by Frank Burton and Harry Crockett, and production started in 1932.
"What Burton and Crockett had wrought was exceptionally clever. The cartridge, when fed from the under barrel magazine, was under complete control all the way into the chamber. There was no room for slop or misalignment in feeding and chambering. This system was so good that many years later in 1972, it was used again in the heralded Model 9422 lever action." http://smith-wessonforum.com/firearms-k ... rifle.html

"In designing the action for the new (9422) rifle, the engineers turned for inspiration to a reliable and honored Winchester of the past, the Model 61 pump-action .22. Although that rifle was abandoned in 1964 as too expensive to manufacture by the old methods, Winchester’s new CNC equipment could make a similar action economically feasible. The Model 61 cartridge feed mechanism was distinguished by the fact that the cartridges were under total control from the instant they departed the under-barrel tube magazine. They were held by their rims throughout the feeding process, helping to provide excellent reliability. That action was modified so that it was actuated not by pump rails, but by a traditional under-lever." http://smith-wessonforum.com/firearms-k ... 422-a.html

[william iorg]

1973 issue of Gun Digest has a good introduction article on the rifle. No mention of designer(s).